Former-Blue takes the challenge
Carlisle United Football Club were delighted to be able to assist former-trainee Ian Milburn last Friday as he set about the monumental challenge of completing 20 sports in 13 hours for some extremely good causes.
Our part in the day was a penalty shoot-out ... and we took the opportunity to find out more about the challenge as Ian waited for the lads to get ready.
"The challenge was an idea I came up with last year after a couple of my friends had passed away," he explained. "I also thought it would be a good way to keep my fitness up and to raise some money for Eden Valley Hospice and Diabetes UK in the process.
"Both charities are close to my heart because Amanda and Kevin were two of my closest friends. Amanda passed away because of diabetes, and Kevin had a brain tumour. He spent the last part of his life in the hospice where they looked after him very well."
As for the challenge, he explained: "I started the day with a mile swim and I immediately moved on to 18 holes of golf. Next up is ten penalties, which I'll try to save, from the Carlisle United youth team.
"After this I'll go over and kick 10 conversions at the rugby club and then take part in a 30 mile bike ride. Then it gets a little bit easier with some darts and pool challenges, but I'm hoping to finish off with a 10k run at the Sheepmount."
"I've called the whole thing the '2013 challenge' so I'm trying to do 20 sports in 13 hours," he said. "If anybody wants to go on to my website they can have a guess at how long the swim took, how many shots it took me to get round Stony Holme and how many penalties I saved. I'm asking people to sponsor me with £5 to have a guess and then, in a couple of weeks time, I will hopefully have built up quite a bit of money. The winner of the guessing competition will get 20% of the donations I receive.
"The amount of support I've received while doing this has been fantastic. Things like this show you that we've got a really good community in the city.
"Tony Caig and Davie Irons have been really helpful with the penalties this morning and I've had a lot of support from local businesses. Hopefully I'll complete the challenge and raise a lot of money for two brilliant charities."
To visit Ian's website, and to donate, click HERE.